Question

Determine whether each table represents a linear quadratic or exponential function

Answer 1

Table A: exponencial function

Table B: quadratic function

Table C: linear function

Explanation:

Table A:

for x from 1 to 2, Y increased by 6

for x from 2 to 3, Y increased by 18

for x from 3 to 4, Y increased by 54

So we can see that the values of Y are being multiplied by 3 for each increment of x, so this table represents an exponencial function.

Table B:

for x from 1 to 2, Y increased by 6

for x from 2 to 3, Y increased by 10

for x from 3 to 4, Y increased by 14

The increment of Y is higher than a linear increment and smaller than an exponencial increment, so this is the quadratic function.

Table C:

for x from 3 to 6, Y increased by -2

for x from 6 to 9, Y increased by -2

for x from 9 to 12, Y increased by -2

The increment of Y is constant for the same increment of X, so this is a linear function.